Give up, Keith. Now. It's about Content, which is apparently king. As long as you produce Content, all is well in this world and you make up stuff like the Auckland wharfies earning $91,000 a year while working 26 hour weeks, and therefore deserve to be fired at a cost to Aucklanders of around $24 million. Or something like that. What do I know? And, I'm not your friend.

When I was working in Government PR I once had the Timaru Herald reprint my media release in its entirety unchanged. They were even thoughtful enough to include the 'Ends" and my mobile phone number for completeness.

Whenever I come across something I know about, I tend to notice things that have been gotten wrong... e.g. only people who vote to change MMP get to vote in the second referendum question; or, three strikes means XYZ.

On a more serious note, your post is a very good example of something that gets on my bröstvårtor regularly. Unfortunately, the tobacco stuff is just one example though. Having followed the intellectual property, "free trade" and copyright circus for a while now, I've seen lots of made up "facts and figures" not just become part of stories but also ended up as accepted, trusted facts that laws are based upon.

Media is meant to hold the rich and powerful to account but since there's absolutely no sanctions against lying and hiding the truth, no matter how damaging such actions may be, it just doesn't work very well.

I hope this is an appropriate place to comment on the new Z station at Royal Oak, the wonderfully tantalising display of carcinogens behind the counter, with only the 'smoking kills ' slogan as signage certainly tempted me. I felt this conflicted with their message of being community focused. Although I notice on the TV add this space is displaying sweets etc.

2) Focussed punisher-style killing spree directed mainly at multinational boardmembers, bankers, and bilderburg attendees. Pluses: enormous short-term buzz. Minuses: short term solution and high chance of dying a horrible death in a Langley basement at the hands of a psychotic spook.

3) Can't beat them, so join them? Pluses: make lots of money. Minuses: taste of rich white male arsehole on tongue not pleasant, potential loss of whatever remains of soul, and dislike being called Wormtongue.

Since I started to receive press releases direct from PR companies a couple of years ago I've been amazed at how many of them end up in print, but more disturbingly how high the proportion of stories are that are PR-generated rather than research generated.

Keith, it never ceases to amaze me that you're so "outraged" by the fact that retailers - yes real people who actually work in a dairy or small convenience store, actually want to have their views heard. You've just fallen for the spin that it's some cunning plot by the tobacco industry.

But why should we be surprised when you've never bothered to look critically at the half-truths and sometime blatant fudging of science by public health researchers who hold themselves to be beyond criticism and take a holier than thou approach.

If you did, then you'd be able to write a post that would really have you seething.

retailers - yes real people who actually work in a dairy or small convenience store, actually want to have their views heard

So you're claiming that this isn't astroturfing, Mr Graham? And that you're acting out of the goodness of your heart?

Carrick Graham, who worked as a PR for British American Tobacco for five years until 2006, regularly showers the ministry with Official Information Act requests about the anti-smoking NGOs. He says he does not get paid by the cigarette companies to do this, but acts out of his personal interest.

Let's not forget that the story here is that local news media have basically abandoned the principles of truth and objectivity (etc., etc.). Personally, I think it's easily the single most serious problem facing New Zealand.